Paras N Singh for BeyondHeadlines
People should know about the arbitrary and unjust conduct of one of the Central Information Commissioner (for short “CIC”). I will refer here the concerned commissioner by her name instead of CIC. The very simply reason for using her name in place of CIC is that there are other CICs who are very good and honest one. Therefore, I don’t want to measure all of them along with Mrs. Sushma Singh, who is an arbitrary and law illiterate Information Commissioner at CIC.
I had filed an RTI application dated 07.06.2012 seeking file movement and file notings made on my earlier RTI application with the CPIO, Ministry of Home Affairs (for short “MHA”). MHA did not provide the information invoking section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act which deals with the term fiduciary relationship. Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI act read as “information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information”.
The second appeal was called upon for hearing before the bench of Smt. Sushma Singh, the Information Commissioner on 30.07.2013. I was heard through audio and respondents were present in her bench personally. She after reserving the order for more than two months passed the order on 04.09.2013 in Case No. CIC/SS/A/2012/003957. I got shocked after going through the order. It was totally unjust and arbitrary order passed even without applying commonsensical mind. It is evident from the fact that she asked the CPIO, MHA to transfer the RTI application to the CPIO of the Supreme Court of India for providing the copy of the Special Leave Petition (for short “SLP”). Perhaps she even does not know that SLP in the Supreme Court is a part of judicial record which does not come under the purview of the RTI Act. But it is hardly to believe that she is not aware of this fact. It can only be construed malafide on her part. Otherwise she would have asked the CPIO, MHA to provide the copy of the SLP since the same was generated in the MHA not in the Supreme Court.
Coming on the other aspect of the order which is indeed an attack in the way of the transparency. One who has been given task to promote transparency; ironically she has left no space to distort the spirit of the RTI Act. She even did not bother to consider the various interpretation of fiduciary relationship by the Supreme Court of India. She surpassed every well settled principle of law and favoured the Public Authority. Moreover, if her decision could not get challenged in the High Court then it would badly affect the other similar cases and will be set as the biggest hindrance in the way of transparency.
Now the time has come that wherever Chief Information Commissioner is of the opinion that intricate questions of law will have to be decided in a matter coming up before the Information Commission, he will ensure that the matter is heard by an Information Commissioner who has wide knowledge and experience in the field of law. Otherwise, Information Commissioners like Sushma Singh will not leave any opportunity to distorts the RTI Act and the bad interpretation of the law will keep go on.
Here is a link of the above referred order:
http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/CIC_SS_A_2012_003957_M_117867.pdf
(Note: Views expressed in this article are that of the author, and do not necessarily reflect views and policy of BH.)
